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Do you remember that elementary school teacher? The one that gave you that little extra push, that encouragement that you remember to this day?

Back in 1979, I started dating a young woman, an elementary school teacher. She taught in what was called a ‘Resource Room’ at an elementary school Agawam, Massachusetts, working with students that needed that little extra help.

On occasion, I would pick her up from school and I would get to see her in action.

She had this smile, you see. This special smile saved for her kids.. and they knew it. They responded to it. There was a connection there with every single child. She would crouch down so that they were eye-to-eye. She made them feel special.

You can’t teach that. You have it or you don’t.

That young woman made a career out of education, her own, her children, her students. Her Doctoral dissertation was on improving the social skills of students with special needs.

I never saw her cross or critical when it came to children. She was masterful at drawing them out, getting to the heart of the matter. Teaching them to use their words, to think for themselves.

Now, on June 1, 2013, she’ll retire, after decades of teaching, a career that covered teaching in preschool through college, from students with special needs to “gifted and talented”, from teaching students to teaching teachers.

So, as my wife moves on to the next phase of her life, all I can say is,

Honey, do you have any idea how many lives you’ve improved and enriched? How many people you have made feel special? How, in your own way, you’ve made the world a better place?